Top 10 Albums That Made an Impact:Arthur Lyman "Yellow Bird"

The CD booklet from Arthur Lyman's "Yellow Bird" album.

DAY #1: Your Top 10 Favorite Albums that had a big impact on you. This is the first of a series of posts that were originally made after being challenged to create such a meme on Facebook by a friend in 2018. This is the updated rewrite of the series with a link back to the original post.

Arthur Lyman - Yellow Bird - Originally posted to Facebook May 11, 2018.

I have compiled Top 10 lists of various records over the years, but on this series, the focus will be on those records that "had a big impact on you".

To start, I go way back to my childhood from 1961 or 1962. My parents bought the Arthur Lyman record, "Yellow Bird".

If you like instrumental music with a tropical flair, Yellow Bird is the album to get. Throughout, Arthur Lyman and his band treat listeners to an array of tropical flavored arrangements utilizing xylophone, marimbas and other percussion instruments plus bird calls for added flavor.

My favorite tracks are "Havah Nagilah", "Bamboo Tamboo", "Adventures in Paradise" (which was the theme music for some 1960s era TV show), and of course "Yellow Bird" which was a top ten hit in 1961 reaching the #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The original vinyl LP we had in our family over the years was played so many times that it badly wore out to the point that it was no longer playable. Years later while browsing Amazon, I purchased the CD reissue on Rykodisc. I think the CD is now out of print, though some of the songs have appeared on compilation albums over the years.

One thing I would like to get is a vinyl copy as released to HiFi Records in good to mint condition. It would be cool to listen to this on vinyl again.

Yellow Bird is highly recommended if you love lounge music and instrumental, tropical exotica.

Listen to Yellow Bird (from YouTube):

Listen to Havah Nagilah (from YouTube):